Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014768, Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:16:01 +0000

Subject
Re: Mr and Mrs. Gutter Perchers, acrobats and "Ch" sound in DAR
Date
Body
On 25/1/07 14:22, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:

> While reading the programme of an entrancing performance, Dreyer comments on
> 'the Gutter-Perchers, who ever they are, and then a world-famous conjuror.' (
> 820) The word "gutta-percha" ( a kind of resilient cautchuck,used as insulator
> and for dental fillings) appears again, now with the correct spelling, on page
> 883, when Dreyer and the Inventor are relieved to discover that a rival
> automannequin is not made of voskin, but is covered by that artificial rubber.
> Beside the play with "percha/perch" ( VN's characters often "perch", like
> birds), we may learn from "Dar" ( The Gift, CCC's page 340), from a
> discussion about synesthaesia and Rimbaud's "audition colorée":
> "If I had some paints handy I would mix burnt-sienna and sepia for you so as
> to match the colour of a gutta-percha "ch" sound..."

JM: beside the play on Œpercha/percher¹ we mustn¹t forget the TRIPLE PUN
embedded in Œgutta/gutter.¹ You note this pair only as a VN spelling
variant. In fact, gutta-percha (Malaysian Œsap tree¹) was a widely-known
term at the time of KQK as the chief constituent of the outer resilient
plastic layer of GOLF BALLS! As a lad (early-mid 1930s) I heard the obvious
puns of golf balls Œperching¹ (dangling) on or near Œgutters¹ (French
goutiere).

GUTTER: Now there¹s a fine word teeming with fruitful diversions. From any
kind of trough or groove, we also find gutters as the white space between
two pages on a book ‹ and as the ultimate social insult: ³They were born in
the gutter ... they speak gutter-English!!² Not to be confused with
Œgooder-German!¹
Thus the Gutter [Besser] Perchers (whoever they may be) are a troupe of
mediocre, unknown acrobats dangling from their ropes & ladders ‹ hardly
birdlike.

The original Malaysian seems to be Œgetah-percha¹ which warns us against
using the term Œcorrect¹ to any one of the many plausible transcriptions or
pronunciations.

Stan Kelly-Bootle

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